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You're looking at the wrong data. Progress is easily impeded without actual lawsuits. The RSA patent held back crypto progress for decades. I don't know if the

by brlewis 11y ago

You're looking at the wrong data. Progress is easily impeded without actual lawsuits. The RSA patent held back crypto progress for decades. I don't know if there were any lawsuits. Likewise for the GIF patent. Still today patents on JPEG2000 are preventing its adoption. H.264 patents slowed progress on web technology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Controversies The "dark matter of millions of active patents out there" is an apt description of failure. The constitutional purpose of patents was to disclose inventions that others could build on. If that purpose were being fulfilled we'd be browsing the patent database instead of all the places we actually go when we want to pick up a new technique.

throwawaykf05 11y ago
I extend the same challenge to CamperBob2 above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9977378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9977378 Give concrete examples instead of vague generalizations. I just have an example of how the GIF patent actually provoked progress as it was used to sure people who were using it without remuneration to the creators. Image compression experts say JPEG2000 is simply not used because it's just not enough of an improvement to make it worth the hassle. Patent issues are secondary. And note that patents did not prevent it from bruin developed in the first place. H.264 patents did not slow down development of new technology, it just slowed adoption of existing technology (h.264) in a different existing environment (browsers) Would you really qualify using the same technology in a browser as a significant technical innovation? So coming back to my challenge: Now that the RSA patent has expired in 2000, 15 years ago, what novel developments can you point to that you can say was blocked by the patent?

by brlewis 11y ago

throwawaykf05 11y ago

I extend the same challenge to CamperBob2 above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9977378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9977378 Give concrete examples instead of vague generalizations. I just have an example of how the GIF patent actually provoked progress as it was used to sure people who were using it without remuneration to the creators. Image compression experts say JPEG2000 is simply not used because it's just not enough of an improvement to make it worth the hassle. Patent issues are secondary. And note that patents did not prevent it from bruin developed in the first place. H.264 patents did not slow down development of new technology, it just slowed adoption of existing technology (h.264) in a different existing environment (browsers) Would you really qualify using the same technology in a browser as a significant technical innovation? So coming back to my challenge: Now that the RSA patent has expired in 2000, 15 years ago, what novel developments can you point to that you can say was blocked by the patent?